


When the World Collapsed

by JakeRiske717



Category: Original Work
Genre: Post-Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-03 03:50:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16318586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JakeRiske717/pseuds/JakeRiske717
Summary: As the group treks to find the perfect location they encounter more people, friendly and possibly not, who knows. The reader will encounter the new enemies and the perils of the group's new world.





	When the World Collapsed

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my own personal work, I'm still working on it and I'm interested if anyone would like me to continue this and build this world further.

Chapter 1; Encounters and Remembering

I awoke with a start and sat up, though it was too quick, as my vision started to clear I tried to remember where I was," Well I am defiantly alive. Nonetheless, where am I? Maybe a building of some sort, but where is here?" I had stated all of this aloud and started to think of why I did not remember anything.

As I was thinking there was a shuffling sound behind me to my left.

"Well no duh you're alive, and to answer your questions we are in a building. You were the one that decided we set up camp here for tonight," a female voice said.

"You're having another memory lapse aren't you?" She asked in a quizzical tone."Well then, let us get you up to speed, your name is Jay Risk, you are 17, and my name is Aleea Wolffe," she finished. I know she was right, yet I could not figure out why.

"No, it just is this headache, I am fine but just a little bit dazed," I responded quickly," some food will get rid of it"

"Yea, about the food supplies, we are actually running low on them at the moment," Aleea stated dryly, "we have enough food for at least four more days."

"Well why don't we get some more food?" I asked.

For asking that question, I was jabbed in the back.

"Jay! You of all people should know that we cannot go out and search for food," she angrily exclaimed, but stayed in a hushed tone, "we got injured people in the group right now, one broken leg and last I had heard there was someone that had a concussion."

By now, my memory started to clear, like the fog that hung of San Francisco in the mornings.

"Right, sorry that part of my memory was still foggy," I replied sheepishly, "memory is not is a hundred percent. I remember the guy with the broken leg, but who got a concussion?"

"Well, that should be an easy answer since you're the one with it," after saying that she got up and walked past me. She was about five feet tall plus or minus a few inches, she was fit not to skinny or to fat, she also had brown hair. She stopped and said in a loud voice," watch your eyes everyone lights going on!" After that, it seemed like a miniature sun had appeared in the room. As my eyes adjusted for the second time in five minutes, I saw the damage that the group had sustained.

"How many of us have injuries?" I yelled out

"Me! I! So am I!" several voices rang-out at once

"Ok those of you that are not hurt please come over to me," I calmly said.

Three people walked over to me, one looked like he walked from hell and back, another had a slight limp, and other had a deep gash, blood seeped through the gash through her sleeve.

"Well we have succeeded in making the world's most ragtag group of apocalypse survivors," I jokingly said then I changed to a more serious voice, "so I understand we are running low on food, yes it is dangerous outside right now but we have got like..Ah. Aleea how much do food we got?"

"We have about four days worth of food left, very little medical supplies, and no water." Aleea stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "And I repeat 'no water'."

"So I have decided to take part of the group, the uninjured ones, out for a quick scout about and scavenge what we can," I started, "I know this is really dangerous for us but if we can get more food, medical equipment and/or supplies, and a lot of water we will not last much longer. So who is in with me?"

"I think one of us should stay behind and be watch over the injured," someone proposed.

"That is a good idea," I confirmed, "what weapons we got and what materials do we have?"

"We have four pistols, two shoties, a rifle, and what, a bow?" Aleea started, "As for the ammo for the guns; there are five clips per pistol, six boxes of twelve gauge per shoties, and the rifle and three clips for that. The bow has maybe twenty arrows in the quiver, though I am not sure how effective they will be to zombies."

"Do we have any automatic guns?" I questioned.

"No, we did not have enough time to grab them out of the shop," the guy with cuts quietly said.

"Well, we got quite the arsenal even without them," I positively said, "we leave one pistol and one shotie for the watcher, and take the rest but, use the ammo wisely."

"So I will stay and watch over the injured," the guy with the limp said.

"Okay that is settled, we should head out."

"Oh! You were asking about supplies what do you need Jay?" The kid that looked horrible asked.

"I was hoping for some road-side flares, matches, tin cans, maybe a few metal pipes, and also some gunpowder, not the kind from the bullets, I need the actual gunpowder from a gun store," I listed-off.

"Okay, we have the road flares, matches, tin cans galore, and I think maybe a one pint of gunpowder. Although why do you need metal pipes?"

"I can make a few pipe bombs, ghetto grenades, and also a magnesium welding tool," I proudly stated, "although I will need some dark sunglasses or a welders mask."

"All of that from flares, matches, tin cans, gunpowder, and metal pipes?" The guys with the gash seemed confused who's name turned out to be Benjamin Gustavik.

"Yes, it's quite easy, however to make the pipe bombs I will need that welders mask."

"Well we are in the right place for one of those Jay," Aleea confirmed.

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"You had us set up camp in a machine shop," she said.

"Alright you guys get ready, Aleea show me the mask; also bring the materials back here. As a forewarning don't look over here when I get started welding unless you want to go blind," I cautioned them.

A few minutes later, I was ready to go and I distributed the pipe bombs and the grenades to the others.

"Alright, is everyone one ready?" I asked the three other people going with me.

"Yea let us go before I change my mind."

We left the machine shop by a street-side exit. We more or less jogged on the street, though it was hard to keep a well-paced jog while carrying a hunting rifle, pistol, bow, and a quiver with twenty steel-tipped arrows. Aleea was carrying the shotie and a pistol, Bryan O'hendrin and Benjamin Gustavik just had pistols, but carried the all-important camping backpacks, which could hold a good fifty pounds each. Therefore, we slowed to a walk about five minutes out. Everyone was on high alert for anything that could or would attack us. Earlier I told Aleea about the flash-bangs and the grenades, which had a semi-long fuse, but they had to be thrown as soon as they were light.

"So, where are the nearest Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, and Costco?" I finally asked.

"There is a Wal-Mart just a few blocks north of here, though I am not sure where a Lowes or Home Depot is, and as for your Costco we would need a car," Benjamin said.

"Well let's get to that Wal-Mart, it should have some food, of course that all depends on the power plants are still running," Aleea stated.

After walking for what had seemed forever we made it to a Wal-Mart that still had its advertisement sign still on, which answered one of our big questions. While walking up to the main entrance I spotted a black four by four dually, that had a three-foot lift kit on it. Therefore, I suggested that one of us should look to see if it was working, and I ended up being that person. When I climbed into the truck, first thing I noticed was the keys in the ignition, there was a hunting rifle with a scope under the seat (which had several boxes of ammo around the truck to), after looking at I handed Bryan the hunting rifle, then turned the key in the ignition, but did not start it just turned it over enough to see how much fuel, there was three-quarters of a tank, with seeing that and the lights turn on, I flipped the ignition all the way, in one try it started, I pressed the gas pedal twice and was awarded with reving, that was all I did and then turned the truck off.

"Well we have a backup plan, if we cannot get back to base by walking," I offered.

"Or to go to the Costco," Benjamin sarcastically said.

"Yea, that is true," I replied just to make Benjamin even more irritated.

We continued although we still kept our guard up. As we walked through the store, we stopped occasionally to pick up food and clothing. It took us five minutes to reach the outdoor department, when we go there we found the keys to the guns and ammunition cabinets, we grabbed what we thought was necessary which ended up being a ten boxes of shotie ammo, eight boxes of rifle ammo, and sixteen more arrows, also we grabbed fishing string, a few fish hooks, two fillet knives, one fresh water fishing pole and one deep water fishing pole, and six different kinds of fish bait. We would hope to move base camp in a few weeks to a more suitable area, hopeful closer to the ocean or lake. While the others grabbed that stuff, I found myself a camping backpack and put a large tent in it and I grabbed two sleeping bags. I walked around a little bit more while the others talked, during the time; it took them to decide about what to do next I found seven walkie-talkies with chargers, strips of leather to create pouches for weapons on the side of the backpacks, and grabbed a laptop. I got back together with the others and they informed me of their plan.

"We are going to take one of the GPS systems that are in the electronic department."

"Search up Lowes and Home Depot."

"Get a generator, numerous gas cans, and other tools that can be of help to us."

"Then fill those gas cans, get the generator back to camp, and set it up."

"Sounds like a plan people, and you might want to take one of these with you if you go outside," as I was saying that I handed everyone a walkie-talkie," although I suggest to find ear buds and put them into the headphone jack. That way we don't alert any other survivors, just in case they are hostile."

"Good thinking Jay," Aleea said sounding impressed.

"It is nothing compared to what I want to do once we get to a Lowes or Home Depot."

"Please tell me it is nothing that could endanger the infrastructure of the machine shop."

"Do not worry Aleea it is just a few things to make the machine shop into a safe heaven."

"Oh, and what kind of changes would those be?"

"There will be porticos that we can peek out of to check who is at the front doors, solar heated showers, rain collectors, and a few inventions that could be thrown together."

"Sweet cannot wait till we get started!" Bryan exclaimed with glee.

"Mind you this may a lot of patience for it to work, and also a lot of arm strength."

"We are will to help, only if you can supply what you claim you can make."

"I promise to do my best, and also if it is possible can one person grab a bag of charcoal, someone else grab a bag of sand not the cat litter sand but actual sand, and I will go and grab a bag of pebbles or gravel whichever one has a finer grit to it." I blurted out.

"What are you thinking Jay?" Aleea questioned.

"With all of these materials and a barrel we can make a giant water filter," I started to explain," but we will still have to boil the water that we filter, it will look black, that is because of the charcoal, yet it will be clean, and the reason for boiling it is to kill the bacteria and viruses that live in the water," I finished.

After I finished saying this, the others left except Aleea.

"Jay, where did you learn all of this?" Aleea sounded shocked.

"Um, I am going to leave it at science classes," I shyly said.

"Well then I am going to thank that teacher, he might have saved us by teaching you all of this knowledge."

I just stood there shocked at what Aleea said; I could not form a response. After a few minutes of awkward silence the others came back sporting a bags of fine grit sand, gravel, a huge bag of charcoal, and rolled a blue barrel of to the cashier stand, and I again I stood shock at how quickly they got the things together and how well they worked together. Finally, Aleea congratulated them, told them to put all the stuff in the barrel and roll it to the main entrance, then report back here.

"Jay, we need you to figure out what else we can use or get from here before we take the truck and leave." Aleea broke me from my shock.

"Well there is a gardening section right, so what do you think we can get from it?" I asked her.

"Fruits and vegetables, Jay you are a genius!" Aleea exclaimed.

"Not really it is just some extra food that takes three months to grow and for it to ripen."

"But it is food, Jay, it can save us eventually."

"Well in that case grab several packets of seed of these vegetables," I started but stopped because of a sound of the walkie-talkies interrupted me.

"We need to get out of here! Do you copy?" The walkie-talkie crackled.

I started to respond when we heard the sound of gunshots coming from the main entrance, with that Aleea and I looked at each other and ran for it.

When we got to the entrance, we found the others of our group pointing their guns at other survivors who just had a pistol and maybe a taser, but I could not make out the latter. The other group of survivors looked like they might have just escaped from a hurricane. They were not a high-risk threat but, they did not seem like a foe and yet they did not feel like friends. Therefore, here was our first test of our diplomatic skills.

"Um, this is a bit awkward," I announced, "Everyone just put the weapons down our group and yours too."

With saying that I looked at the people who were with me, gave them a nod to put their weapons down, and I put my weapons down. After doing this, the other group did the same. I thought to myself, 'well at least they did not shot us when we put our weapons down.'

"My name is Jay, this is Aleea," I pointed to Aleea," this is Bryan and Benjamin.

We came here to get some supplies; we left most of the food, water, and guns. The main thing we took was just some gravel, charcoal, sand, dirt, and seeds." I stated in a calm and collective voice.

"Well in that case my name is Phillip, this here is my group," Phillip gestured with his hands, and while he talked pointed at his group of two," this is Joseph, and this is Salina. We came here to get some canned foods, and maybe a few fire starter logs."

"Do you guys have a base camp with others, perhaps injured?" I asked nicely.

"No, we don't have anyone else just us three nomads. But surprisingly enough no injuries, but the same cannot be said for your group here," Phillip pointed out," and do you guys have a base camp somewhere?"

"To answer we d-," I started to say.

"No we do not have a base camp set yet," Aleea interrupted," Jay was going to say we have injured people in a warehouse a few blocks back."

"Yea that was what I was about to say," I gave Aleea a sideways glance, but her face gave me an answer I did not like. It was like she was saying 'I don't trust these people, but keep them thinking we do,'

"Well then in that case we will let you five go," Phillip said, but a small and almost hard to see sneer appeared on his face but quickly went away," we may meet again, but we now have a little bit of diplomatic grounds."

"We will be picking up our weapons now but, they will be on safety, I suggest you do the same on your pistol and taser." I said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh, this," he said as he picked up what I thought was a taser," this thing is not a taser, this is an automatic pistol."

As soon as he said that, I knew we needed to get out of here.

"Well we can trust you to put that on safety right?" I asked rhetorically

"Yes, you can see it is on safety," as Phillip said this he pointed up in the air and pulled the trigger, nothing happened.

"Alright then our rifles and pistols are on safety, as for the bow well, you can see me put the arrow in it, and you can rest assured that we are not going to attack." I said in an urgent tone to my group. "Also we are going to be taking that truck, we will not be able to drag all of this back," I faltered," I mean we will not be able to drag all of this stuff and our injured with us to a good place to set up our base camp."

After finishing it seemed like Phillip saw right through Aleea and my lie, yet he acted as if he thought nothing of it.

"Well I hope you know how to drive, but good luck to you Jay." He definitely said that with a sneer.

After loading up the barrel, dirt, sand, charcoal, and gravel, we put the seeds inside our backpacks and loaded them up in the bed of the truck. Luckily, for us this dually had six seats, three in the front, and three in the back. We all loaded in, it ended up with Aleea, and I in the front, the others all huddled together in the back. Aleea and I decided it would be best if I drove, so with that settled I drove from the Wal-Mart parking lot at a slow cruising speed. I was thinking to myself about how narrowly we got out of that situation when Aleea told me the others were asleep I sighed with relief.

"Sorry Jay I did not trust that kid, Phillip," She started," that automatic pistol just sent me over the edge, and I think that he does have a base camp somewhere. There was more than those three."

"Glad I was not the only one feeling that."

"We should think of something to throw anyone off our trail in case we are being followed."

"What? Wait, you told that Phillip guy, that we had put our injured into a warehouse, so he expects us to pull into a warehouse not a machine shop. So let us pull into a warehouse, park the truck in it and wait a few hours and see what happens."

We drove for a few more blocks and then I drove up to a random warehouse near the wharf, Aleea hopped out and ran to a side door. I knew from experience that Aleea has the ability to pick locks, and that is exactly what she did. She picked the side door's lock and when inside, after a few moments the big sliding front doors rolled open wide enough for the truck to fit in it. I drove the truck in and the doors rolled shut after the truck. Aleea had shut the door that she picked so this left the whole warehouse in the moody light of the rising sun.

"So what's going to happen now?" I asked Aleea without knowing where she was.

"We are all going to get a few hours of sleep, and I see that you grabbed a laptop," she pointed to the cardboard box sitting in my backpack next to me.

"Yea, I grabbed it, a GPS, and a WI-FI hotspot," I blandly said.

"Well you could start a video log, or a written log of what has happened so far," she offered.

I lightly laughed out, "Yea I guess I could, or maybe write all of our wills."

"Jay, I understand what you are going through, we all are going through the same thing," she said with a slight sadness in her voice.

"Aleea, you do not understand what is going on, I got a text from someone who had called them self S.R.," I responded," S.R. was the initials of someone from my family, someone who had died a long time ago."

"What did this text say?"

"It had said, 'Jay, you are in grave danger, get out of where you are now, do not take highly populated transits, i.e. the bus you are about to take. I will message you later. S.R. P.S. Get the group together, you might be in for the long haul.' This was before you showed up in that black SUV."

"Oh. Jay you were keeping this all to yourself. No wonder why you were so tense."

"Well, it is over now, and the SUV what happened to it?"

After I had said, that Aleea went into a defensive position.

"You had a plan to get us out of the area; you had assured us that we could pull it off. We were heading to an airfield that was near the place where we picked you up at."

As Aleea talked, I started to remember all of it.

"You told us to stop off at a gun store that you pointed out. We went in and grabbed some weapons, that is when we got our first look of these infected, though I am not sure why we have not seen any since, they swarmed the back door of the store." Aleea shuddered," you told us to run and give you a shotie. You created a distraction long enough for us to reach the SUV, you came running, told us "pedal to the metal, and don't let up till we get two miles away from the shop." We did just that but we only got as far as one and half miles away when we saw police road block that prevented anyone to get out of the city limits. You told us to jump out of the car and you tried to bust through the blockade, but you did not see a spike trap that had been laid out in front of it to prevent one to bust through the barricade. When we jumped, Connor got a sprained foot, Benjamin found a piece of a bumper in his arm, and I did not really get hurt too bad. You on the other hand should have died from the impact of a car that was doing fish tails at sixty miles per hour straight into a concert roadblock. Yet you only got a concussion, that gives you a blackout which gives slight amnesia, once in a while."

"Truthfully I think I did," I said a bit crazed, "but I refused to leave you guys behind. I could not let you guys get all of the fun." I jokingly finished.

"Well I am glad you decided to stay, but really how did you only get a concussion?"

"That is the funny part, I jumped into the back seat of the SUV when it hit that spike strip."

"So, that is how you did it," Aleea sounded surprised.

"Yea, truthfully I don't think anyone was following us," I announced.

"Is that so? If that is not the case let us get out of here and back to our people."

After having that conversation with Aleea, it cleared a big portion of my mind, and allowed me to think about our current situation. Which was not very great but it was not that bad either. However, our other people were in dire need of medical attention. I knew we needed to find a hospital or something like that. As Aleea was opening the main doors, again, I searched for hospitals on the GPS, one popped up; it was several miles away from us. Aleea got back into the truck and I showed her the GPS.

"We have to go there Aleea," I informed her.

"I know we need to go there, but we need to check in with the others."

"We will also need to find a gas station the truck is running low on gas."

"All right, we have a plan, yet we still need a good place to stay at for now. The machine shop will not be good enough anymore, since we know there are others."

"So we should not delay any longer let's hit the road."

With all of that laid out, we went to the machine shop that held the others of our group.

When we got back to the others, we were greeted by Connor whom we had left to watch over them.

"Hey guys glad you made it back," Connor said with enthusiasm," and got a good vehicle."

"Yea, we sure did," I commented," we need to pack up quickly though."

"Um, why do we need to pack up right now?"

"We just need to get everyone ready to move, help them into the back of the truck, and get out of here as soon as possible."

"Again I ask 'why'?"

"There are others out there but they are not friendly."

"Okay, so what did we get from the Wal-Mart?"

"We got several things, materials to make a water filter, a GPS, a laptop, some more guns, fishing supplies, and I think a few gallons of water."

"Nice, also I do not think there is much stuff to pack I will wake up the others."

"Alright, and I will get started on packing."


End file.
